What’s in bloom

It’s summer, and Kate Spade realizes that you spend the majority of your days tucked away indoors. So, in honor of their next jaunt to Argentina, they’re gifting us all a handpicked wallpaper to deck out our digital spaces.

Happy decorating!

Poetic Justice and Such

Recently, for work, I’ve been added to this weekly meeting of the minds. There are 8 of us from different disciplines within the agency who will now gather on Tuesdays for creative sharing and internal communications. Anyway, we were given three prompts, one of which was to bring something along that really inspired you, then show-and-tell about it. I found this goldmine by Fly Art, after the meeting. Ancient masterful pieces that adorn the likes of the Louvre serve as the conduit for lyrics that were written centuries later. It’s kind of like graffiti but a lot less destructive. Some enthusiasts might be offended by the people at Fly Art’s embellishments to the works of the Greats, but I think it’s pretty incredible. So incredible, in fact, that I was inspired to make one of my own. I’m not that into hip hop, so I featured one of my favorites from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs instead.

Benjamin West (American, 1738–1820). Omnia Vincit Amor, or The Power of Love in the Three Elements, 1809. Featuring the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gold Lion, from Show Your Bones. 

Words on Waiting

How-to dress yourself after leg & foot surgery…

Let’s presume you’ve had foot, or ankle, or leg or whatever surgery. Bottom line, you’re in a leg cast for one reason or another, and your journey to healing has just begun (magical sound effects go off in the background). It’s blue skies! You see the mountains but hey, they’re not going to get you down, not after you’ve been heavily dosed with painkillers by the hospital. No sir.

But, oh, wait…here comes day 3, or 4, or week 2…whatever the number, here comes the day you finally get to interact with society, and now you are no longer allowed to spend entire days in your pajamas. And on this fateful day, let’s presume that it is not bare-leg season. As in, it is too horrifyingly cold. What on earth do you wear? Do you just telecommute? If this is the case, when will you even become fit for public consumption?! And, above all, why did this information not come to you in that little binder the doctor provided? Do not panic. Sure, you probably cannot wear 75% of your wardrobe, but I discovered  three viable options that pretty much every, living, breathing woman has in her closet: tights/stockings, leggings and workout/lounge pants.

Cast Life Lesson 1: If it stretches it fits. Allow this to become your motto for selecting clothing. Here’s the thing, you’ll either want to opt for capri-styled leggings and workout pants, or stock-up on tights and stockings that you won’t mind hacking half a leg off of. It sounds crazy, defiling brand new or lightly worn tights, but honestly, the moment you put normal people clothing on, the better you start to feel in general.

Cast Life Lesson 2: Let skirts and dresses be your friend. Because tights and stockings cannot be worn as solo acts, and I will caution you that leggings should not be worn in that fashion either, pair them with skirts and dresses. They’re easy, you only need a handful of them and realistically, pants, or anything constricting definitely won’t go over your gigantic cast. Plus, even if you can manage to wiggle them up, all that bunching around your knees is constricting.

Cast Life Lesson 3: Invest in scarves and accessories. Excluding your pajamas and loungewear, you’ll probably have all of 6-7 outfits you feel truly comfortable in. Capitalize on accessorizing and 6-7 is now magically 24+ outfits. Plus, all that crutching around makes you sweaty, making scarves the most appropriate item to help regulate your body heat.

5 Reasons Nail Stickers Beat Nail Art

Can nail art be incredible? Yes. Isn’t it expensive? Also, yes. But, the truth is, you can get a pretty similar affect by opting for nail stickers a la drugstore. Ordinarly I’m all about Essie, Butter and Deborah Lippmann (oh my!) but, occasionally I fall prey to wanting something a little more fun and unique.

For times like these, here’s why I vote yes on nail stickers vs. nail art.

1. No dry time.
2. DIY possible (as in, no salon necessary).
3. These little appliques cost little more than a nice bottle of nail polish.
4. Easy to swap out.
5. If one sticker manages to go rogue, there are a.) extras in the package and b.) you don’t have to remove the lot.

You can find the scripty stickers photographed above by Sally Hansen at pretty much any drugstore, and believe it or not, they stay on about a 100x better than my Essie nail stickers did which are allegedly LED light cured.

 

Reconstructive Foot Surgery, a Love Story

The first time I met with my surgeon, he gasped with wonder when I placed all of my weight on my foot. He’d never seen a anything “pancake out” like that before, he told me. Wounded ego aside, my visit was due to, brace yourselves, a bunion and bones that were set higher up in my foot that had been causing awful pain for years. I was told said bunion and rogue bones would only worsen with time.  So, after an internal debate that lasted over the span of years, I decided to get the operation.

I had heard the horror stories: how terribly painful the procedure would be, how recovery was so long and hard, and how limited I’d be from normal activity. But honestly, I could not be happier that I did it. Anything I found online about this procedure was either spammy, or too clinical, so over the rest of my recovery, I plan on peppering in a few things I’ve learned along the way to help bridge the gap on the internet. I’m almost at the 1 month mark now. Still in a hard cast, and I’ve only just stopped working from my living room, but I’m feeling decidedly positive. While it wont be the only thing I am writing about, there will definitely be more to come over the next two months (including, but not limited to; how to dress yourself in the fall when you have a giant hard cast that takes up half your leg, or how to still get exercise, the importance of the knee scooter…)

6 Reasons For Buying A Vegetable Spiralizer

1. It’s an incredibly easy way to make veggies and fruit more interesting.
2. You can make “pasta” that has no carbs (zuchini, squash, beets…)
3. Comes with tons of options. You want a salad? Leave it cold. Wait, what’s that? You want chips. Slice and bake my friends.
4. For some unexplainable reason, it alters the flavor of the veggie so it’s kind of new again.
5. The device is super affordable.
6. It’s fast. Like, 15-20 minutes for washing your veggies and spiraling MAX.

Seriously, you need to buy a vegetable spiralizer.